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Aimed at next year’s tablets, smartphones, and even netbooks, the new system-on-a-chip (SoC) from Samsung called Orion continues right where its predecessor Hummingbird left off. In short, the Orion enables 1080p video output/recording and brings dual-core processing while improving battery life.
The 45-nanomenter die supports memory stacking to reduce the footprint and combines ARM’s Cortex-A9 dual-core processor clocked at 1GHz, a 1MB L2 cache that improves multitasking performance, the memory interface, and bus architecture that supports data-intensive apps like 3D games and 1080p video playback.
In addition, each core sports a 32KB data cache and a 32KB instruction cache. The Orion chip also sports an embedded GPS receiver baseband processor and supports varied storage types, including NAND flash, moviNANDTM, SSD or HDD, and more.
Its video encoder/decoder supports 30fps video playback and recording at 1080p resolution. It can also drive two built-in screens and a third external display simultaneously via an embedded HDMI 1.3a interface. The Orion’s GPU is rated at five times the 3D performance of Samsung’s previous-generation design. Orion will be available to “select customers” in Q4 2010 and to everyone else in H1 2011.
Samsung’s most popular mobile SoC is the single-core Hummingbird, Orion’s predecessor which contributed strongly to Android’s expansion and is found in a number of smartphones like the Epic 4G. The Hummingbird chip is also powering Samsung’s recently announced Galaxy Tab slate.
